Chapter 28: From the Depths of the Nine Nether Regions

In Xiaolin Town, Zhao Rucheng and Du Yehui had lost their combat abilities, and Linghe was carrying Zhao Rucheng, so only Jiang Wang could fight on the way back to the central palace position. Fortunately, he was now quite experienced in dealing with those wandering souls, and his Purple Qi Comes East Sword was becoming more and more refined in this continuous battle.

He didn't have to worry about his stamina either. Since returning from Tangshe Town and cultivating the Chong Meridian, he had accumulated more than seventy Dao Yuan. Although using one less before the formation of the Dao whirlpool, each Dao Yuan could give him enough feedback in a critical moment, and it wouldn't be too difficult to support this intensity of battle pressure. In fact, these Dao Yuan were his trump card for deciding to break the Xun Palace position with the four of them, but he didn't expect Zhao Rucheng to suddenly encounter danger, and Du Yehui to be so decisive.

"I say, don't all of you keep wearing such long faces," Zhao Rucheng couldn't help but say after walking for a while, "It's just excessive loss of Qi and blood, it's not like there's no way to remedy it."

"What way?" Before Du Yehui could speak, Linghe became excited and kept shaking Zhao Rucheng's hand while carrying him, "Tell me quickly."

While clearing the wandering souls, Jiang Wang couldn't help but glance at him, really wanting to give him two sword strikes. This kid, if he had a way, why didn't he say it earlier, and had been holding it back all this time.

"Hey, hey, you're making my handsome head dizzy." Zhao Rucheng finally managed to appease his 'temporary mount' and continued: "I happen to know that someone recently bought a Gu Yuan Pill from Yun Country at a high price and is about to resell it. This pill has miraculous effects in nourishing Qi and blood and stabilizing the foundation. Some aristocratic children even take a Gu Yuan Pill before opening their meridians, so that the Dao Meridian True Spirit after opening the meridians will be more agile! Not to mention Du Laohu's mere situation of excessive Qi and blood loss."

"It's just that I don't know..." He even curled up the corners of his mouth, "Whether some people are willing to buy it."

Du Yehui paused before saying in a muffled voice, "I don't have any money."

"You can borrow from me. Industry rules, nine out, thirteen back." Zhao Rucheng said with a smile.

"Usury is fine, Brother Hu likes usury." Du Yehui smiled in a seemingly simple and honest manner.

"Alright, alright." Jiang Wang had a dark line on his forehead. Everyone in the entire Maple Forest City who was in the usury business knew that Du Yehui was notorious for not repaying loans. In Du Laohu's words, since these people who are in the usury business are not good people anyway, it's good to cheat them out of some drinking money. If it weren't for his Dao Academy background, he would have been thrown into the moat long ago.

"Little Wu, who is that person? How much silver is he willing to sell it for?"

Jiang Wang had already secretly decided that no matter how much that person asked, he would find a way to scrape together the money.

"The person who bought the Gu Yuan Pill actually has the surname Zhao. Isn't that a coincidence?" Zhao Rucheng sighed pretentiously, "What's even more coincidental is that he's actually someone from my mansion. This is too coincidental!"

Jiang Wang took a deep breath, warning himself that Old Wu was seriously injured and could easily be beaten to death. Only then did he control the urge to hit him.

This kid went around in circles for so long, and it turned out that he was saying that his family had a Gu Yuan Pill that could make up for Du Yehui's loss. Just this one sentence made several older brothers wait with bated breath for half an incense stick.

Even the generous Linghe felt his gums ache.

However, with this guarantee, everyone felt much more at ease. As they were talking, they had already returned to the central palace position.

Li Jianqiu and Zhao Lang were already waiting there, discussing something with Wang Changxiang. There were also some other fellow disciples present, and their conditions were not very good. Wei Yan had gone to support the Dui Palace position, which was the only formation point that had not yet been breached.

"Junior Brother Jiang's performance is good." Li Jianqiu greeted casually.

Wang Changxiang also nodded to him.

"I'm ashamed, it all depends on the outburst of my Brother Yehui and Rucheng." Jiang Wang said with a wry smile.

In front of several main forces, he decisively gave up the credit. The most important thing at this stage was to allow them to successfully open their meridians. The reason why he didn't mention Linghe was because Du Yehui and Zhao Rucheng's conditions were more convincing.

Linghe also didn't care at all.

Li Jianqiu and the others were all seasoned veterans, and they knew what state Du Yehui was in at a glance, and they were secretly shocked by his strength of Qi and blood.

"When Wei Yan returns, we will go straight to the central palace." Wang Changxiang said, "This time, everyone bravely killed the evil, and their performance was remarkable. Maple Leaf City will not forget your contributions, and the Dao Academy will not forget your merits."

"Exactly!" As he spoke, Wei Yan walked out of the thick fog, followed by three Dao Academy disciples. Two other disciples did not appear, and it seemed that they had unfortunately died.

The tragic battle was not limited to the Xun Palace position. Except for Wei Yan and Li Jianqiu, who almost flawlessly solved the town position's vengeful ghost, the remaining squads had casualties. Eleven people died, with a casualty rate of nearly half! Almost everyone who survived was injured. Even Zhao Lang was almost disemboweled, leaving a hideous wound on his abdomen.

If it weren't for Wang Changxiang, who was stationed in the central palace, to coordinate in time, this squad action might not have been successful.

Wei Yan solemnly said: "If we can go back after this battle, I will be the first to ask for credit for everyone."

"I didn't expect this battle to be so dangerous. But now Maple Leaf City's combat power is empty, and only you can fight." Speaking of this, he actually bent down and bowed, "On behalf of the unjustly deceased souls of Xiaolin Town, and on behalf of the people of our Maple Leaf City, thank you for your bloody battle!"

"Brother Wei is too polite." Li Jianqiu said.

Everyone turned aside, refusing to accept this gift.

"What is General Wei saying? You are from Maple Leaf City, aren't we also born and raised here?" Du Yehui said dissatisfied, "Don't talk about empty rituals here, time is of the essence!"

In such a weak state, this guy still didn't hide his heroism.

Wei Yan took a deep look at him, picked up his knife and turned around, "This junior brother is right. Everyone, follow me to charge! Let's see what kind of evildoers are poisoning our fellow villagers here!"

With the eight palaces broken, the fog wall in the central palace position also lost its foundation and collapsed silently, no longer blocking the way. However, the thick fog still did not dissipate, always obscuring the view.

Wei Yan took the lead, with Li Jianqiu and Wang Changxiang protecting him on the left and right. Zhao Lang, although injured, had mostly intact combat power and was stationed at the rear of the team. The group warily explored the central palace position.

Now, there was no need to say more about the danger of Xiaolin Town. Having experienced the dangers of killing vengeful ghosts in the other eight palace positions, everyone had some imagination of the ferocity of the central palace position.

Those evildoers who were causing trouble in Xiaolin Town must have an ulterior motive and must be in this center.

This group of people can be said to represent the hope of the younger generation in Maple Leaf City. If they were all killed in battle here, it could be said that the entire Maple Leaf City Dao Academy would have a generation gap.

But no one said they wanted to retreat. The road ahead was indeed dangerous and terrifying, but this was their hometown!

They were born here, grew up here, learned here, and were willing to die here.

In addition to Zhao Rucheng and Du Yehui, there were three other Dao Academy disciples who had lost their combat power. Xiaolin Town was so dangerous, so it was impossible to leave them where they were. Therefore, Linghe was still carrying Zhao Rucheng and walking in the team, and Huang Azhan, as Du Yehui's old drinking buddy, was also protecting him.

Different from the almost exhausted Du Yehui, Huang Azhan was energetic. In the previous battle, he was also one of the few who was unscathed, showing that he still had some strength, and was not entirely only coquettish.

The team was moving forward when Huang Azhan suddenly stopped. He took a deep sniff: "I smell a fragrance."

The team paused.

He added: "It's a woman's rouge... no, it's body fragrance."

Everyone looked at him.

He added: "It's a beautiful woman."

Du Yehui said angrily, "Are you a dog nose?"

"Ah! Beautiful female ghost!" Zhao Rucheng became excited all of a sudden, "I said there would be one, didn't I? Du Laohu, you owe me a romantic encounter!"

No one paid attention to these two live treasures, because they had already reached the very center of Xiaolin Town, and they also saw that huge, moving vortex.

Besides that, there was nothing else in the entire central palace position.

The red-dressed woman, the white-haired old man, the black-robed cultivator, seemed to have never appeared.

Not only did they not exist. There were no people, no livestock, not even a brick or a tile, except for the endless thick fog, there was only this strange, lonely large vortex.

"Where is the official yamen here? What the heck is this vortex?"

No one could answer this question. Only Wang Changxiang widened his eyes, shocked!

"Brother Wang, do you recognize it?" Wei Yan asked in a deep voice, holding his knife defensively.

But his question was soon answered.

Because from the deep darkness in the center of the vortex, a pitch-black thing slowly emerged.

Seeing pitch-blackness from the darkness was originally a very awkward description. But that was the case.

That pitch-black thing in the darkness, but it seemed like the center of the darkness, and it could allow everyone to see its appearance clearly. As it rose bit by bit in the vortex, its full appearance gradually unfolded in front of everyone.

It was a stone archway, and the style was not grand, just a three-bay, four-column, seven-story structure. If you ignore the pitch-black texture, ignore the scene in which it appeared, then it was no different from the archways that people see every day.

But the plaque in the very middle of the archway had already exhausted the extraordinariness.

There were three words written on it. No one present recognized the font, but everyone understood its meaning at first glance.

--Ghost! Gate! Pass!